


R.U.N.

by Storybook_Wolf



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Coming Out, Cute gay teen romance, Gay Will Byers, Jonathan Byers is a terrific brother, M/M, Period-Typical Homophobia, Post-Season/Series 02, Will Byers Has Powers, Will Byers is a jock
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-11
Updated: 2018-06-02
Packaged: 2019-05-05 06:15:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 10,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14611344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Storybook_Wolf/pseuds/Storybook_Wolf
Summary: In his freshman year at Hawkins High, Will starts to develop strange abilities - and unexpected feelings for a classmate.





	1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

 _He was there but not there. Able to see everything, but not be seen. Hear everything his family and the police said. He could call out, but no one heard. It was like he’d turned into a shadow: not part of the world, but still lingering around the edges. Until he figured out that he could connect with the phone and the lights somehow. With anything electrical, really. He had no idea_ how _he was doing it, but he was, and there was no time to analyse what was going on. He just needed to let Mom and Jonathan know that he was alive, and close by, and that they needed to get him out of here. He would hide from the Demogorgon for as long as he could, but he knew that eventually it would get him. The odds of never rolling less than 13 were low, and his luck was bound to end at some point._

_Will watched his mother, her eyes full of desperation as she strung up Christmas lights in the living room. Then she got a tin of black paint and started to paint the letters of the alphabet on the wallpaper. Once she’d painted the final stroke on the z, she stepped back and looked at the wall._

_‘Okay, baby, talk to me,’ his mom said, her voice trembling. ‘Talk to me. Where are you?’_

_Will spelled out his message: R.I.G.H.T.H.E.R.E._

_‘Right here!’ his mom cried. ‘Right here … I don’t know what that means. I need you to tell me what to do.’_

_Will’s stomach dropped. The truth was, he didn’t know what to tell her. He had no idea how she could get him out of here, and away from that creature._

_He heard a rustling sound. As if he had summoned the thing just by thinking about it, the beast was drawing closer. It was coming for him again._

_No, he realised. Not for him._

_It was coming for Mom._

_But in the real world, his mom was completely oblivious to the creature’s approach. She was still staring desperately at the wall, asking him questions. ‘What should I do? How do I get to you? How do I find you? What should I do?’_

_There was only one answer Will could give to that question now._

_R.U.N._

*

Will ran. He ran until his chest was pounding and his legs felt like jelly, and then he kept running. Finally, long after he’d felt like he couldn’t possibly keep going, he collapsed to the ground.

‘Good hustle, Byers,’ said Coach Deane, marking Will’s time down on his clipboard. ‘Now get over there with the rest of the team.’

In the first week of high school, Coach had made Will’s gym class run: sprints, middle-distance and long-distance. Gym had never been Will’s favourite subject, but this was a lot better than dodgeball, or rope climbing, or any type of team sport. When he was running, it was like his mind blocked out everything except the physical action. He wasn’t worrying about whether the Mind Flayer would come back, or if Mom was coping okay, or if his friends were starting to suspect there was something not right about him. He was just running. It felt good.

And apparently he was pretty good at it, because Coach had put him on the junior varsity track team. Will had always been the smallest kid in his grade (at least until his growth spurt had kicked in last summer), and he’d never been interested in sports, so it was strange at first, but he’d started to enjoy it. Most of the other guys on the team were pretty nice, and it did seem like people treated him a little differently now that he was an athlete. (He was still also a nerd, and Zombie Boy, and a bunch of other names, but it was nice to not just be defined as a weirdo all the time.)

Coach blew on his whistle. ‘Okay, fellas, pair off for sit-ups. Thirty reps, then swap, and keep going until I tell you to stop.’

The team split into pairs, and Will found himself partnered with Mark Reilly. The blond-haired sophomore had seemed like one of the good things about track at first. He was friendly and had made sure Will wasn’t the last person without a partner in the first few training sessions, when it felt like the rest of the team was already friends and he was an interloper. Will hadn’t really had friends outside of the Party before – they’d always been such a tight-knit group that it felt like they didn’t need anyone else. But Mark was just really easy to talk to, and Will had found himself looking forward to seeing him at training. Sometimes they’d pass each other in the hall, and the older boy would smile and say, ‘Hey.’ Will would automatically smile back and feel a little glow inside as he thought to himself, ‘That’s my new friend!’

Eventually, he realised what was going on: he had a crush on Mark.

Will was mortified. Had he been really obvious? Had his friends noticed? He tried to think whether he’d been bringing Mark up in conversation all the time, like Mike did with El, and Lucas did with Max, and Dustin did with whatever girl he was obsessed with that week. And oh god … what if Mark had noticed? The older boy had been nothing but friendly and welcoming, but he’d probably be repulsed if he knew how Will felt about him.

Will had known he was gay for a long time – pretty much as soon as he found out the meaning of the word. ‘Oh,’ he’d thought, ‘that’s me.’ It meant he could put a name to the funny feeling in his stomach when he saw Luke Skywalker training on Dagobah in a tank top; that he could explain why he never got crushes on girls at school like his friends did. But until this year, he’d never had a crush on an actual boy before. It was more abstract – he liked _the idea_ of a boy, rather than any particular one.

Since his realisation, he still looked forward to seeing Mark at training – but he dreaded it at the same time. The two of them would slip into conversation just as easily as before, and he’d be enjoying it, but at the same time he’d feel kinda nauseated and worry about whether he was saying the wrong thing. And always, above all, there was the anxiety that he would give himself away and Mark would see him for what he really was.

So being paired with him for this drill was both the best thing to happen to him all week, and torture. For sit-ups, one person had to hold the other’s feet in place while they did their reps. Will knelt on Mark’s feet and held his ankles while the other boy did thirty sit-ups, feeling the strength in the blond boy’s legs but pretending he didn’t notice. Then they swapped, and he tried not to be aware of how soft-but-strong Mark’s hand were as they gripped his ankles.

‘You’re getting a lot better at these!’ Mark said with a smile. ‘Just try not to move your neck. Pretend you’re holding an orange under your chin or something.’

‘Thanks,’ Will managed. He knew his face was red from exertion, which was kind of embarrassing since Mark was so much fitter than he was, but at least it hid the fact that he was blushing.

*

As Will rode his bike home, his head was full of thoughts of Mark. So he was distracted and already a bit flustered when he opened the front door to the unexpected sight of his brother and Nancy on the couch. More specifically, his brother sitting on the couch and Nancy straddling him, with her shirt off, as they made out. They broke apart, startled, when they heard the door open.

Will froze, bright red again, before squeaking out, ‘I’m sorry!’ and rushing to his bedroom. He sat down onto the bed, still in shock, and a minute later there was a knock at the door.

‘Will?’ said Jonathan. ‘Can I come in?’

‘Okay,’ said Will.

His brother walked in and sat tentatively at the end of the bed. ‘Um … I’m really sorry about that.’

‘Why would you do that in the living room?!’ Will burst out. ‘What if I’d had Mike with me? Or what if _Mom_ had walked in on you?’

Jonathan’s face turned slightly grey at that thought. ‘You’re right. We shouldn’t have been … we were just watching TV, and then we got distracted. Um … I just wanted to say that if you ever have any, uh, questions or anything, you can always talk to me.’

‘No thanks.’ Will glared at his brother, stony-faced.

Jonathan seemed a little taken aback at Will’s response. ‘Okay. And look, I really am sorry. It won’t happen again, I promise. That will stay in the bedroom.’

‘Thanks,’ said Will. ‘And when you’re in your room … can you remember to play music or something? The walls in this house are really thin, so I can literally hear everything you guys do.’ He knew he was being bratty, but he couldn’t help himself.

Jonathan looked mortified. ‘Oh. Shit. Yeah. I’m sorry,’ he said again.

The bedroom light flickered. It had been doing that a lot lately. Will figured that, in addition to the thin walls and draughty windows, the house also had crummy wiring.

As soon as his brother left the room, Will lay back against the pillows. He felt bad about giving Jonathan a hard time, but seriously, doing that out in the living room rather than his bedroom was just dumb.

Ever since he’d started dating Nancy, Jonathan had been so much happier than he’d been in years. He just seemed lighter somehow, smiling all the time and just generally being more positive about everything.

A good person would be happy for their brother in this situation, but instead Will felt kind of – betrayed. He knew that Jonathan had gotten called _fag_ and _sissy_ and all those other names, just like he did, including by their dad. Plus, Jonathan never went to school dances and had never been on a date, or even talked about any girls. It had made Will feel a little better to think that he wasn’t alone in this. The two of them had never discussed it exactly, but Jonathan was always giving him these little pep talks about not being like other people, and going on and on about how great David Bowie was, and saying stuff like ‘I’m a freak too!’ What did he even mean by that, if not that he was also queer? Just that he liked different music from the other kids at school? That’s not the same thing. At all.

So as well as being a weirdo, Will was apparently someone who didn’t want to see his brother be happy with someone he loved.

He really wished that he could talk to Jonathan about Mark, but even the thought of having that conversation made his mouth dry up and his throat feel all scratchy. He was pretty sure that his brother would be okay with him being gay, but he just didn’t feel like he could actually say it out loud to anyone yet. Besides, even though Jonathan had a girlfriend now, he wasn’t exactly a relationship expert. (Will and Mike had discussed their siblings’ romance, and concluded that it was almost certainly Nancy who’d made the first move.)

Will heard ‘The Ghost in You’ by The Psychedelic Furs start playing in the next room. To make doubly sure that he wasn’t going to hear anything, he put on his headphones, picked up the copy of _The Halloween Tree_ from his bedside table, and tried to clear his mind of all thoughts about a certain sophomore.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Will hangs out with Mark after school, two unexpected things happen.

Chapter 2

_This is stranger than I thought_

_Six different ways inside my heart_

_And everyone I'll keep tonight_

_Six different ways go deep inside._

Will was at the bike racks after school a few days later, unlocking his bike and getting ready to head home, when he heard a familiar voice break through the sound of Robert Smith in his headphones.

‘Hey, Byers! Wait up.’

It was Mark. Will felt his face break into a grin involuntarily, and he immediately tried to rein it back into a normal, low-key smile. Usually Will hated being called by his last name – mostly because it was only bullies who ever called him that – but he kind of liked when Mark did it.

The older boy picked up his own bike, which was on the next rack over from Will. ‘Are you headed home?’ he asked.

‘Yeah,’ answered Will, pushing his headphones back off his head and turning off his Walkman.

‘Same,’ said Mark. ‘Wanna come over? I’m trying to put off working on my history paper.’

‘Gee, thanks, what a great invitation,’ said Will, deadpan. ‘I feel really honoured.’

Mark rolled his eyes. ‘I know, I know. Sorry. But seriously, are you coming over or what?’

 

Mark’s house was on Cedar, a few blocks from where Mike and Lucas lived. It was huge – bigger than Mike’s house even, and really nice. Will felt self-conscious as soon as he saw it, instantly aware of how out of place he must look in this fancy place, with his shabby hand-me-down clothes and his home haircut.

Mrs Reilly greeted them in the kitchen. She reminded Will of Mrs Wheeler, with her big hair and pastel clothes, but the way she hovered around them when they first came in reminded him of his own mom. Mark introduced Will to her, and he saw a familiar expression pass across her face. _Oh, THAT kid. The one everyone thought was dead. How awful._ She seemed like a really nice lady, but Will still bristled at that look. Would people ever forget about what had happened to him, or would stares and whispers always follow him around?

Mark seemed to pick up on his discomfort, so he quickly extracted them from his mom, and they headed upstairs with grilled cheese sandwiches and milk.

Mark’s room had blue striped walls and a bookshelf that held as many trophies as books – mostly track and field, plus a couple of baseball ones. He also had a brand-new looking stereo, with a turntable and a double cassette deck. The speakers were huge – Jonathan would _kill_ for a stereo like that.

‘I’ll put some music on,’ Mark said, seeing Will looking at the stereo. ‘I don’t know if I have anything that you’ll like … what were you listening to earlier?’

‘Oh, it was a tape my brother gave me – The Cure?’

Mark shrugged. ‘I don’t know them. Put it on.’

‘Sure,’ said Will. His hands were shaking a little as he transferred the tape from his Walkman to the stereo.

Once the music started, he and Mark sat on the bed.

‘So …’ said Mark. ‘Your brother’s a senior, right?’

Will nodded. ‘Uh-huh. It’s nice being in the same school as him again. The last time was third grade. We all have lunch together sometimes – him and his girlfriend and me and my friends. Have you got any brothers or sisters?’

‘One of each,’ said Mark. ‘But they’ve both moved away. Marie is five years older than me, and Kevin is seven years older, so we’ve never really been close. Must be nice.’

‘Yeah, it is,’ said Will. ‘I mean, he’s a pain in the ass sometimes, but most of the time he’s pretty cool. He looks out for me, and shares his records and stuff.’

They were quiet for a little while after that, just listening to the music.

_Just try to see in the dark, just try to make it work_

_To feel the fear before you're here_

_I make the shapes come much too close_

_I pull my eyes out, hold my breath and wait until I shake_

They were both sitting with their backs against the wall and their legs out in front of them, looking straight ahead. Will’s hands were resting by his side, and all of a sudden he became aware of Mark’s hand, slowly moving closer to his own. His breath hitched. _Calm down,_ he told himself. _You’re just imagining things._

But a moment later, there it was again – Mark was definitely sliding his hand closer to Will’s. It was close enough now that he could feel that slight tingling of static electricity. Their pinkie fingers couldn’t have been more than quarter inch apart, if that. The other boy wasn’t touching him, but he felt just aware of him as if he could actually feel the weight of Mark’s hand on his own.

He risked glancing across at Mark. ‘I really like this song,’ he said with a small smile. His voice came out all weak and soft.

‘Same,’ said Mark. Was Will imagining it, or was the other boy blushing?

Will felt his own face heating up.

_If only I was sure_

_That my head on the door was a dreeaam_

The music was distorted for a moment, presumably because Will had rewound this song a million times so he could listen to it on repeat.

Then, he felt it. Mark had tentatively raised the edge of his hand and his pinkie, and rested them on Will’s, ever so gently.

Will’s face was burning now; he could even feel sweat breaking out on his forehead. His heart sped up, and as it following its cue, the tape sped up too, distorting until it jammed and started emitting a worrying squeaking sound.

He ripped his hand away from Mark’s and rushed over to the stereo. When he ejected the cassette, he saw that the tape had unspooled and become tangled in the machine. He managed to extract it without breaking it, but he it was all crinkled and twisted. He knew he should wind it all back in with a pencil before it got worse, but he was overwhelmed by the need to just get out of Mark’s room as quickly as possible.

‘Shit! I’m sorry. Is it broken?’ asked Mark.

‘No. It’s fine. I’m sorry,’ said Will, shoving the unspooled cassette in his pocket. ‘I just remembered that I’ve got to … help Jonathan make dinner. I should go.’

He couldn’t bring himself to meet Mark’s eyes; instead he just hurried down the stairs, calling goodbye and thank you to Mrs Reilly as he let himself out.

He cycled down Cedar St in a daze, the blood pounding in his ears as he tried to figure out what had just happened. _I did that. I made the tape speed up and the stereo chew it up._ But just as he’d had no idea how he’d been able to control the lights in the Upside Down, he was completely clueless as to how he’d done this.

He was so caught up with thinking about the fact that he could somehow interfere with electronics here in the real world, that he was halfway down Mirkwood when a thought that was even more extraordinary hit him.

_Mark wanted to hold my hand. Holy shit._


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Will tries to talk to El about her powers without giving away his own secret. But when he and Mike argue, it gets harder to hide what's going on.

‘Outta the way, freaks,’ James said, elbowing past Will and El as they walked out of social studies the following Monday.

‘Ugh, he’s such a mouthbreather,’ El said to Will. She didn’t bother to lower her voice, and James’s friend Troy turned around and gave her the finger.

El narrowed her eyes. Despite her barrettes and hoop earrings and rainbow-striped blouse, she looked dangerous.

Will nudged her with his shoulder. ‘Hey – they’re not worth it. Promise me you won’t get caught just for breaking some idiot’s arm.’

‘I’m not gonna promise that.’ She was trying to still look tough, but Will could see that all the threat was gone from her eyes.

‘Does it ever … happen by accident?’ Will asked. ‘Like, your powers just come out without you meaning them to?’

El looked at him quizzically. ‘No,’ she said. ‘But when I was little, sometimes I couldn’t control how strong it was. I’d try to do a small thing and it would come out big. Or the other way round.’

‘Oh.’ Will wanted to ask her more, but he hesitated. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust El. The two of them had become really close. They had four classes together, and she and Hopper were over at the Byers house all the time – Hop said it was to help El get ‘socialised’, but Will and Jonathan knew that it was mostly about him wanting to spend time with their mom.

If he told El, she’d have a million questions, and he probably wouldn’t know how to answer them. (If they were about what he was doing and how he’d felt when the stereo sped up, he also didn’t _want_ to answer them.) Plus, she would probably tell Hopper, who would definitely tell Will’s mom, and she would freak out. That was the last thing he wanted – it had taken almost a year for her to get back to normal again after the whole Mind Flayer thing, and Bob’s death.

But El seemed to sense that he wanted to know more, so she kept going. ‘Sometimes Papa would make me practise, to learn exactly out how much power to use, till I got really good at knowing. If I did a good job, he’d give me a treat. One time I got ice cream. I’d never had it before.’ She gave him a funny look, and he could tell she knew there was something up. ‘Why do you want to know about my powers?’

Will shrugged, trying to look nonchalant. ‘No reason.’ They’d almost reached the library now, and he was relieved to see Nancy outside it, waiting to meet El for one of their twice-weekly tutoring sessions. ‘See you later.’

El stared at him for a moment, her mouth twisted slightly as though she was trying to solve a difficult puzzle. To his surprise, she reached out and hugged him before heading towards Nancy.

As he had quite a few times since El started school, Will felt at once embarrassed by her and embarrassed for her. It was amazing how much she’d managed to learn, but there were still plenty of things that she just couldn’t get the hang of – usually the kind of unspoken rules of social interaction like ‘a boy and girl who are just friends don’t hug, especially not in the middle of the hallway at school’. El didn’t know any of that; she just saw one of her friends looking down and gave them a hug to make them feel better. That was the kind of person she was.

*

That afternoon, Will and Mike were hanging out in the Wheelers’ basement. The card table was covered in notebooks and sketches, and Mike was scribbling furiously in a folder. He wasn’t working on a D&D campaign, but on something much more epic – a movie.

Mike had joined the Hawkins High drama club at the start of the school year. He was an enthusiastic if awkward performer, but what he really loved was the behind-the-scenes stuff – writing, directing, lighting, all of it. It was like being the dungeon master, but on a bigger scale. He’d decided to focus his newfound passion on making a movie of his very own, and had enlisted all their friends to help him with it.

The working title was _The Creature from Mars_ (Dustin had strongly advocated for _The Creature from Uranus_ , but everyone had just ignored him). Mike was writing, directing and producing, as well as acting in a couple of small roles. Will didn’t want to be in the movie, but he’d happily volunteered to be the production designer. Lucas was assistant director, and starred as the heroic astronaut; Dustin played the wise-cracking sidekick, and also did all the catering. El played a scientist who helped the hero figure out how to stop the creature’s rampage. (She was sort of the hero’s love-interest, though Mike was insistent that she and Lucas shouldn’t kiss.) Holly had been persuaded to play the creature itself, and in exchange Mike had promised to buy her a Peaches ‘n’ Cream Barbie. Mike wanted Max, Nancy and Jonathan to play the creature’s victims, but they hadn’t agreed yet. Behind the scenes, Max was stunt co-ordinator, Nancy was on hair and makeup, and Jonathan was the cinematographer.

Will had pointed out that ‘cinematographer’ was possibly too fancy a word for ‘guy who presses record on Bob’s JVC,’ but Mike was adamant that this should be like a real movie. He kept trying to get Jonathan to storyboard scenes with him and plan how he’d compose shots.

Usually Mike was bouncing around like an overexcited puppy any time they worked on the movie, but this afternoon he seemed grumpy and distracted, cutting Will off with curt responses any time he tried to offer a suggestion about the scene they were working on. (It was the part where the sidekick distracts the monster, giving the hero and the scientist time to charge up the nanoblaster they use to defeat it.)

The third time Mike snapped at him, Will decided to face the problem head on. ‘Are you mad at me for something?’

Mike grimaced. ‘I saw you.’

Will’s blood ran cold. Mike saw him and Mark? But they’d been in the Reillys’ house the whole time! ‘What? How?’

Mike’s eyes narrowed. ‘What do you mean, _how_? You were right there in the hallway! You weren’t even trying to hide it.’

Will was relieved his friend didn’t seem to know about what had happened at Mark’s, but now he was very confused. ‘What? Mike, I have no idea what the hell you’re talking about.’

‘I’m talking about you and El. I saw you at lunchtime – you were all over her!’

Will laughed. He couldn’t help it – the whole idea was just ridiculous. ‘Mike, it’s not like that, I swear! I don’t even like El!’ The full explanation would have been _I don’t even like El, because I don’t like girls. I like boys – specifically, one of my track teammates, and I think he might like me too._ But this really didn’t seem like the time for that conversation.

His laughter just seemed to make Mike angrier. ‘Shut up! I know she’s not actually allowed to date anyone, but if she was then _I’d_ be her boyfriend. I can’t believe my best friend is trying to steal my girlfriend! You know, I defended Jonathan when Dustin said he’d stolen Nancy from Steve, but maybe I was wrong. I guess that’s how the Byers operate.’

Now it was Will’s turn to be angry. Why would Mike bring Jonathan into this? ‘Don’t talk about my brother like that!’

‘What, you don’t want me to talk about how he hung around Nancy like a bad smell for a year, and then swooped in and stole her when she was all upset about Barb’s anniversary, and now you’re doing the same thing with El?’

Will slammed his palms down on the table. ‘SHUT UP!’ he yelled.

In the corner of the room, a lamp blinked wildly. Then, the lightbulb exploded, scattering shards of glass all around the base.

The two boys were silent for a moment, staring at the lamp.

‘Holy shit,’ breathed Mike. ‘Did you do that?’

‘… Yeah. I think I did,’ said Will.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I felt bad making Mike be mean here! But we know he gets weird and jealous where El is concerned. And I figure the best way to make a Byers angry is to go after their family, not them.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Will attempts to harness his power, but it doesn't go to plan. He confides in Jonathan, who has a suggestion that might help.

The next day was Saturday. Mom was at work and, as usual, Jonathan and Will spent the morning cleaning the house. They both hated it -- particularly cleaning the bathroom – so to motivate themselves to get through it they always had a video ready to watch afterwards, as a reward. Today’s was _Dawn of the Dead_.

Will must have seen it a hundred times, and usually alternated between being glued to the screen and hiding behind a cushion, but today he couldn’t seem to focus on the film. Yesterday, after he’d broken the lamp and given Mike a very vague rundown of the other weird stuff that had happened (leaving out both the Mark-hand-holding and the shirtless-Nancy), his friend had asked a million questions about how it worked, and Will hadn’t known how to answer any of them.

When he was in the Upside Down, he’d somehow just known how to control the lights and things – all he’d had to do was think _turn that light on_ or _make the phone ring_ , and it would happen. But now, everything that had happened had been completely out of his control, weird side effects of him getting too angry or embarrassed or something.

Mike had tried to get him to recreate it, but without success. He’d even tried making Will angry again, to see if that would trigger it, but all the insults he came up with were so ridiculous that they both just ended up dissolving in laughter.

Now Will was determined to try again. He focused on the TV. It would be too obvious to turn it off, or fast-forward the video or something, but he decided to try to turn the volume up, just a tiny bit. Hopefully Jonathan wouldn’t even notice.

Will stared and the TV and concentrated. _Turn the volume up_ , he thought, squinting slightly.

Nothing.

_Turn the volume up. Turn the volume up. Turn the volume up. Turn the volume up. Turn the volume up. Turn the volume up. Turn the volume up._

Nothing.

Maybe it was better to keep it simple. _Louder._

_Louder. Louder. Louder. Louder. Louder. Louder. Louder. Louder. Louder. Louder. Louder. Louder. Louder. Louder. Louder. Louder. Louder. Louder. Louder. LOUDER._

There was a popping sound, and then the screen went blank.

‘What the hell?’ said Jonathan, going over to the TV. He turned it off and on a couple of times, fiddled with all the dials, checked the plug, and finally thumped the top of the box with his fist. ‘Dumb piece of junk,’ he muttered.

Will stayed frozen on the couch. _Shit_.

Jonathan, seeing Will’s stricken expression, must have thought he was just upset about the TV. ‘Hey, it’s okay, buddy – don’t worry about it.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘We can go buy a new one right now, come back, set it up and finish the movie, all before Mom gets home.’

Will just nodded. He stayed quiet on the drive to Radio Shack, and while Jonathan picked out a TV (the cheapest one that was about the same size as their old one). But on the drive home, he couldn’t hold it in any longer. ‘I’m sorry,’ he blurted out.

‘Hey, what is Mom always saying to you? Stop apologising all the time. Especially for things that aren’t even remotely your fault. The TV was old and crappy, it just conked out.’

Will shook his head. ‘No, I did it. Not on purpose, but I was—I was trying to turn up the volume.’

Jonathan looked confused, and a little concerned. ‘No you weren’t. You were all the way over on the couch when it died. Remember?’

‘Yeah, but I was trying to turn up the volume with …’ He took a deep breath. ‘With my mind.’

There was silence in the car. Will felt like everything hung in the balance in that moment. Would Jonathan believe him? Maybe he would think he was crazy. Will knew his brother had thought Mom was losing it that week he was missing, when she was talking to the lights and screaming about a man without a face crawling out of the wall.

Finally, Jonathan spoke. ‘…Okay, I’m gonna need more of an explanation here.’ After Will had run through the edited version again, his brother looked over at him and grinned. ‘Holy shit, Will – that’s incredible! It’s like you’re one of the X-Men or something.’

The younger boy grimaced. ‘I don’t really think the ability to mess with the lights or break TVs could be helpful when fighting evil. And I can’t even do it properly! It just happens by accident sometimes.’

Jonathan chuckled. ‘Well yeah, but even the X-Men have to learn how to use their powers properly, right? That’s what Professor X’s school is for.’

A chill ran through Will. ‘I’m not going somewhere like the lab.’

‘Oh god, no!’ said Jonathan. ‘Those guys were morons. They released the Demogorgon by accident, they had no idea how to close the gate, they didn’t know what was going on with you. If they were the best our government had to offer, then the Russians are definitely going to be running things soon. I wasn’t suggesting anything like that,’ he said. ‘I meant El – she’s the closest thing we have to Professor X, right?’

Will had to agree with that. ‘Yeah … but do you think Hopper would let her?’

‘Why would he need to know? He’ll just be happy if you and El make yourselves scarce next time they come over. It’ll give him more time alone with Mom.’ Jonathan waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

Will mimed retching. ‘Jonathan, please! I just ate two hours ago, how do you expect me to keep it down?’

‘Yeah, sorry about that.’ Jonathon’s expression became more serious. ‘But for real, I think El would really like being able to help you with this. It must be tough for her, having to hide it all the time, being scared that people might find out. And lonely, being the only one of her friends going through it.’

Will looked down at his hands. He knew what that was like. ‘Yeah. You’re right. And she’s always getting help from other people – tutoring, and reminders of how to act normal, and Hopper’s word-of-the-day thing. I’m sure she’d really like to be the one helping somebody else for a change. I’ll talk to her at school on Monday.’ He paused for a moment. ‘Thanks for believing me. It feels really good to talk about it.’

‘Any time,’ said Jonathan. ‘You can tell me anything, you know that.’

Will glanced across at Jonathan from under his lashes. Was this the right moment? Should he just do it? ‘Thanks. And also, I’m gay,’ he said.

Jonathan burst out laughing. ‘Okay. That’s cool too.’ He grinned, then reached across and ruffled his younger brother’s hair with one hand. ‘I love you, Will.’

‘I love you too,’ he said.

*

Predictably, it took their mom a while to notice anything. She’d gotten home from work around 6, bringing pizza with her, and they’d eaten in front of the TV. Then Jonathan left for a date with Nancy, and Will and his mom settled in to watch _Splash_ , which was kind of stupid, but funny.

They were halfway through the scene where Tom Hanks proposes to Daryl Hannah when Joyce suddenly asked, ‘Wait a minute, when did we get a new TV?’

Will quickly ran through what had happened – the old one died in the middle of their movie, while he was fiddling with the volume, so they’d bought a new one. His mom sighed heavily.

‘Goddammit,’ she said softly. ‘Jonathan shouldn’t be spending his money on things like that.’

‘I know,’ said Will. ‘I’m gonna get an after-school job and pay him back. There was a sign up at the ice-cream parlour the other day, saying they’re hiring scoopers. I could do that.’

‘Absolutely not! I didn’t mean _you_ should pay for it, I meant that _I_ should. I’ll go to the bank on Monday and get the money to pay him back.’ She looked slightly pained. Will knew it upset his mom that they needed Jonathan’s paycheque to help with the bills. ‘Your brother’s savings are for him to use for himself, not for household things. And _you_ are not old enough for a job.’

‘Jonathan got a job when he was 14.’

‘That’s not the same thing.’

It was _exactly_ the same thing, but he didn’t want to get into a fight with his mom. He understood why she was so protective of him, and it made him feel loved, but that didn’t make it any less frustrating. Sometimes he wondered if his she would ever loosen her grip on him enough for him to get a job, or to go away to college, or to do any of the normal things that everyone else did.

He decided it probably wasn’t worth arguing with her now. But this summer, he would get a job – something during the day, so Mom wouldn’t worry about him being out late – and hopefully they’d keep him on after school went back. Once Jonathan went away to college, they’d miss the extra money, and he wanted to be able to help his mom.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Will resolves to try to make his friendship with Mark work.

‘Has anyone seen my keys?’

‘Check the couch,’ Will and Jonathan said at the same time. Will was pouring three glasses of orange juice, and Jonathan was sliding scrambled eggs onto plates.

Their mom walked into the kitchen, holding her keys over her head triumphantly, and kissed each of them on the cheek. ‘Oh, Will, I forgot to tell you – I got Jeffrey to cover my shift next Thursday, so I can come to your big track meet!’

‘Thanks, Mom, that’s great,’ he said, but his tone must have betrayed his hesitance.

‘What’s wrong?’ she asked. ‘Do you not want me there? It’s just that I’m so proud of you, sweetheart – I want to be there to support you.’

‘I know,’ he said. ‘And I appreciate it, I really do. It’s just … could you try and support me quietly, and from a distance?’

His mom reeled back slightly, and fixed him with a stare. ‘I’m embarrassing. That’s what you’re trying to say, right?’

‘No, no, I didn’t mean …’ He trailed off. She was basically right, but he didn’t want to come out and say it. ‘It’s more like the other way round. I’m the slowest guy on the team – in a bigger school I wouldn’t even have made the team. So it’ll be embarrassing for you to be cheering for me.’

Joyce’s face confirmed that his argument hadn’t been very convincing. She turned to Jonathan. ‘Do you think I’m embarrassing too?’

Jonathan gave a half-smile. ‘I wouldn’t put it that way, exactly, but you are very … enthusiastic. It’s probably what held me back in my athletics career.’

Will snorted. ‘Yeah, right, because otherwise you _totally_ would have been starting quarterback on the football team.’

‘Hey, maybe! I could have hidden talents,’ said Jonathan. He sighed dramatically and stared into the distance. ‘But now we’ll never know.’

Their mother rolled her eyes. ‘You’re both just mean. What did I ever do to deserve such mean sons? I’m sorry to disappoint you, Will, but I will be there next Thursday. I will sit up the back, being very quiet and applauding softly when it’s your turn, but I will be there.’

The truth was, it wasn’t just his mom’s embarrassingly loud love that he was worried about. She may have been incredibly vague when it came to things like car keys and TV sets, but the one thing she was always hyper-aware of was him. He was sure that as soon as she saw him with Mark – even if they were just saying hello to each other – she would know exactly what was going on.

 _There’s nothing going on_ , a little voice in his head pointed out. _He thinks you hate him – you ran out of his house in terror when he touched your hand, and you’ve been avoiding him ever since._

That was true. Rather than being reassured by the fact that his crush was maybe (probably?) reciprocated, Will was even more freaked out. It was kind of exciting, but mostly paralysing.

Things were so much easier for his friends. If one of them liked a girl, and she liked him back, they could ask her out, or hold hands in the cafeteria, or dance with each other. They could be a real couple. Will knew that wasn’t an option for him and Mark. The Party would probably (maybe?) be okay with it, but pretty much everyone else at school would think they were freaks. Perverts. Weirdos.

(He did admit that his friends had their own romantic problems. Hopper had decreed that Jane was not allowed to date until she turned 17, and Mike was terrified of him. So holding hands in the cafeteria and dancing at school dances were pretty much _all_ they were able to do. Lucas and Max were an official couple, but her racist family made things difficult for them. And although Lucas’s parents really liked Max, they worried that he was ‘making himself a target,’ and were always telling him to be cautious. Dustin had a new crush every other week, and he never had any of Will’s anxiety about letting them know how he felt. Unfortunately they never liked him back, but he remained optimistic that eventually one of them would.)

Even though Will knew he and Mark had no chance of some kind of happily-ever-after, dancing-at-the-prom teen romance, he was still determined to stop avoiding the other boy. He’d been sure there were no other gay people at Hawkins High – hell, in the whole of Hawkins! Now he’d actually found one, and made a real connection with him. Even if he and Mark could only ever be friends, he still wanted that. Today, he told himself, he would find Mark and let him know that he wasn’t freaked out by what had happened, and he still wanted to hang out with him.

 

As it turned out, he didn’t have to work very hard to find Mark: he was waiting at Will’s locker that morning. Will saw him as he rounded the corner, and stopped for a moment to prepare himself. Mark was leaning against Will’s locker with one shoulder, looking down and fiddling with the cassette case in his hands. Then he glanced up, and caught Will looking at him. He stood a little straighter, and waved nervously.

Will waved back, feeling himself blush but trying not to care. _It’s okay if he knows you like him, remember?_

‘Hey,’ he said as he drew closer to the locker.

‘Hey,’ said Mark. ‘I, um … I just wanted to say sorry. About what happened last week. With your tape. I feel really bad about my stereo chewing it up, so I—I got you this.’ He thrust out the cassette, and Will saw that it was _The Head on the Door_ , the same album that had been chewed last week.

‘Oh, wow,’ said Will, his blush intensifying. ‘You didn’t have to buy a brand new one – the one that got chewed was only a copy. And it probably just died ’cause I’d listened to it a million times.’

‘I still feel bad about it, though,’ said Mark. Now that he didn’t have the cassette to occupy his hands, he was fiddling with the drawstring from his green hooded sweatshirt. ‘And if it makes you feel any better, that cassette isn’t brand new any more. I listened to it a couple of times on the weekend, and made a copy of it for myself.’

Will beamed. ‘Really? You liked it?’

Mark nodded. ‘Yeah. It’s great. I really liked that song called “Six Different Ways.” But the whole thing’s pretty good.’

‘Yeah, it is,’ said Will. He swallowed, bit his bottom lip, then quickly added, ‘We should listen to it together sometime. Again, I mean. But all the way through this time.’

‘That’d be really good,’ Mark said with a smile. ‘How about Wednesday after school?’

‘Perfect,’ said Will.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh man, I really want to give Will his happily-ever-after, dancing-at-the-prom romantic ending, but I also want to keep the story true to the time and place. Damn you, 80s small-town attitudes!


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> El coaches Will on how to use his power, and they bond over having Bad Dads.

Will and El sat out on the deck at Hopper’s trailer, looking out over the lake. It was Tuesday afternoon, and they were taking a break after an hour of practice. Will had told her about his powers the previous day, and she’d been weirdly elated by the news. He figured Jonathan was right – it meant a lot to her to know she wasn’t the only one with abilities.

Today, however, she was all business. She’d explained how Papa and the other scientists at the lab had put strange wires on her head, and used all kinds machines to measure and record what she did. But she and Will didn’t have access to any kind of equipment like that, so they’d have to figure out a more low-tech way to do it.

First, she’d made Will sit across from her at the table and close his eyes. ‘I’m going to look around your brain,’ she’d said, as though that was a perfectly normal thing. It had been extremely unsettling to feel her presence in his head, and to hear her speak to him in there. But after a few minutes she seemed satisfied, and they started on some exercises.

She got him to do a few small things at first – the same types of things he’d been trying on his own without success. But El knew exactly how to describe what he needed to do, and as they worked he felt himself becoming more confident, and more certain of the power that was within him. He could feel it taking shape within him, like a real physical thing. And just as he could clench his stomach muscles or wink one eyelid, he could flex this strange new muscle.

The final exercise for the afternoon, the one they’d worked up to, involved the Supercomms. El had borrowed Mike’s, and had told Will to bring his with him. She’d shown him how to tune into it with his mind – to take the little spark inside him and adjust its frequency until it matched the radio’s. Then, they went to different rooms and managed to tune into each other’s Supercomm.

Now Will was exhausted. He didn’t have a nosebleed like El sometimes got from exerting herself, but his whole body ached, as though he’d just run a long-distance race at a full sprint. The two of them sat silently, listening to the sounds of crickets and birds as dusk fell.

‘Thank you,’ said Will after a while. ‘It … it must be hard thinking about the lab, and the things they made you do there.’

El just shrugged, still looking out at the water. ‘Is your papa dead?’ she asked.

‘What?’ asked Will, confused.

‘Your papa,’ El said. ‘Dustin said his papa doesn’t live with him because he died. Is that what happened to yours?’

‘Oh, right,’ said Will. ‘No, he lives in Indianapolis. He and my mom are divorced. Do you know what that means?’

El nodded. ‘Mike wishes his parents would get divorced, so his dad would move out.’

Will smiled. ‘Yeah. I’m glad mine did. My dad is …’ He trailed off, not quite sure how to describe Lonnie Byers to El.

‘A bad man?’

‘Sort of, but not like—’ Will almost said _not like your papa_ , but stopped himself. He wasn’t totally sure how El felt about her papa. ‘He used to be really mean to my mom all the time, and sometimes to Jonathan and me too. He’d get upset with us for not being more like him, and he’d call us names and things, and sometimes he’d push us around. It’s weird, but even though he was mean a lot of the time, I never stopped wanting him to like me. Every now and then I’d be good at something he cared about, or I’d do something that made him happy, and it would just feel really good. It still happens – like when I made the track team, one of the first thoughts that came into my head was _Dad would be proud of me for this_. It’s dumb, I guess … Jonathan hates him, and thinks I shouldn’t care about wanting him to like me, but I can’t help it. Do you get what I mean?’

She nodded. ‘Yes. I know Papa was one of the bad men, but when he’d tell me that I’d done a good job and he was proud of me, I’d be so happy.’

She reached out and took his hand, and as the sun went down they just sat there, knowing they didn’t need to say anything.

*

Will and El practised again on Thursday afternoon, and for a couple of hours on Saturday morning. He was surprised at how much progress he was making – having a teacher who understood exactly what he was trying to do, and who knew him so well, made all the difference. And she seemed to love being a teacher, always coming up with new activities and even grading him (he was getting mostly Bs, with one or two As).

One of her tests on Saturday involved Bob’s video camera, and on Sunday morning she came over so that they could check the results on the Byers’ tv (Hop’s was too old – it didn’t have the right input to plug in the camera). Luckily, his mom was at work, so Will, El, Mike and Jonathan all gathered around to watch the short video.

‘You guys realise this is actually going to be very boring to watch, right?’ said Will as it started to play.

The camera had been positioned on a low tree stump, in a clearing on the outskirts of town. Will and El had stood about 150 yards away, and at the beginning of the clip they were just small figures in the distance. On the screen, Will’s grainy silhouette could be seen standing still, facing the camera. Next to him, El was dancing around, waving her hands in the air.

‘What are you _doing_?’ asked Mike, his voice equal parts confusion and admiration for his girlfriend.

‘I thought the video would be more interesting if we weren’t just standing there,’ said El matter-of-factly. ‘But Will didn’t want to dance.’

After about a minute of El’s interpretive dance, the camera zoomed in closer. It held the tight shot for a little while, then zoomed slowly out. It went on like this for a little while. _On_ , _off_ and _zoom_ were really the only controls on the camera, so that’s what Will had to work with.

‘I can’t believe how much more control you have over it already,’ said Jonathan said to his little brother. Then he turned to El. ‘You’re a pretty great teacher.’ She beamed.

Even though the video was just as boring as he’d predicted (despite El’s dance moves, gleaned from hours in front of MTV), Will was thrilled with it. It showed he could control something from a distance, and be really precise about it. Not just turning something on or off, but manipulating its controls.

Jonathan chewed on his bottom lip thoughtfully. ‘Y’know …’ he said, ‘that actually looks really cool, having the camera down low like that. We could do something similar in _Creature from Mars_. In the first attack scene? We could shoot it from the creature’s point of view, maybe even use Max’s skateboard like a camera dolly. It’d make the creature look really menacing, and, y’know … less like a kindergartner in a homemade costume.’

‘That would be awesome!’ said Mike, his eyes lighting up at the mention of his beloved movie.

‘Excuse me, Holly’s costume is going to be great!’ said Will indignantly. ‘I’m gonna make her look terrifying.’ He wasn’t sure what bothered him more – the fact that Jonathan and Mike were basically ignoring what he’d managed to do with his powers, or that they were already criticising his work on Mike’s movie, which hadn’t even been made yet. (But it was good to see his brother and best friend getting along so well. I mean, if Jonathan and Nancy ever got married, _they’d_ be brothers, which was weird but kind of cool.)

Mike and Jonathan just kept talking about camera angles and point of view and lighting. El reached over and patted the back of Will’s hand gently. ‘Hey,’ she said quietly. ‘You did a great job with the video camera. I’m giving you an A+ for that test.’

‘Thanks,’ said Will with a smile. It felt pretty good to know that he was figuring out how his power worked, and how to use it. Actually, it seemed like there were a lot of things he was figuring out lately. It was a pretty great feeling.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> On the day of the big track meet, Will's relationship with Mark takes on a new dimension, and he makes some important decisions about his life.

The Thursday of the big track meet, Will woke up with butterflies in his stomach.

For reasons he didn’t entirely understand, Woodrow Wilson High School were Hawkins High’s sworn enemies, and any competition between the two took on a kind of mythic status. For the football and basketball games, the whole school would get into a frenzy, sometimes even stealing Wilson’s mascot.

Track was more low-key, but their annual meet was still a big deal. Coach Deane had been talking about how important it was for weeks, and they would actually have a decent crowd watching them for once.

But not all the butterflies were about the meet – some were about Mark. The last two Wednesdays, they’d hung out at the Reillys’ house after school, listening to music in his room. The first Wednesday, listening to _The Head on the Door_ , had been almost as awkward as the day he sped up the stereo. They sat side-by-side again, in silence. Then they both spoke at the same time, which led to both of them blushing and stuttering apologies. Eventually, halfway through track 5, ‘Push’, Will had decided to just be bold. He’d reached out and taken Mark’s hand, and the other boy hadn’t freaked out – in fact, he’d looked at Will with an expression so grateful and happy that his face was basically glowing.

That gesture must have unlocked something, because they went back to chatting just as comfortably as ever, as though they weren’t two boys holding hands in a town that would happily beat the crap out of them for doing just that. The rest of Hawkins didn’t matter; it was just the two of them, and it was pretty amazing.

Yesterday, the soundtrack had been Duran Duran’s album _Seven and the Ragged Tiger_ (from Mark’s record collection), and a Bowie mix Jonathan had made for Will after the Mind Flayer thing. They’d sat holding hands for a while, and at one point Mark had rested his head on Will’s shoulder while they talked about their favourite movies. Will had turned his own head slightly, breathing in the minty smell of his teammate’s shampoo. He thought his heart might burst out of his chest from happiness. It all just felt … really right.

Will had used the bike ride home to mentally compile a list of songs he either knew Mark liked or thought he would like, and then he’d stayed up half the night putting them onto a mixtape. He’d turned it into practice by using his Extremely Lame and Not Very Useful Superpower to control the tape deck. Now it sat on his bedside table, the tracklist carefully written out in coloured pens.

Side A

  1. Close to Me/The Cure
  2. Don’t You Want Me/The Human League
  3. Dance This Mess Around/The B-52s
  4. Hand in Glove/The Smiths
  5. Dreaming/Blondie
  6. This Must Be the Place/Talking Heads
  7. Teenage Kicks/The Undertones



Side B

  1. Rock the Casbah/The Clash
  2. Your Silent Face/New Order
  3. Hounds of Love/Kate Bush
  4. The Chauffeur/Duran Duran
  5. Don’t You (Forget About Me)/Simple Minds
  6. Back on the Chain Gang/The Pretenders
  7. Fire in Cairo/The Cure



Unable to think of a title to put on the spine of the cassette case that would capture what he really wanted the tape to say, he’d simply written _Hawkins vs Woodrow Wilson, March 13 1986_.

*

Will still felt keyed-up that afternoon in the locker room, as he and the rest of the JV team gathered around Coach Deane for a pep talk. He wasn't really focusing on what the man was saying, but it seemed to be a blend of every cliché from every sports movie Will had ever seen.

Will kept glancing across at Mark - not moving his head, but just his eyes, which hopefully wouldn't be too obvious to the rest of the guys. When the rest of the team filed out, they were the last two left in the locker room.

‘Hey,’ said Mark. ‘Nervous?’

Will shrugged. ‘A little,’ he admitted. ‘But not because of the meet. I—This is for you.’ He pulled the cassette out of his pocket and thrust it towards Mark. ‘It’s to say thanks. For the Cure tape, and stuff.’

The older boy smiled as he read the case. ‘Awesome,’ he said. ‘So, is this gonna be a thing now? I give you a tape, so you give me one, and then I have to give you another one, and on and on?’

‘Yeah,’ grinned Will. ‘It’s definitely a thing.’

Mark ginned back at Will, then paused for a moment. He glanced around the locker room, making sure there was no one else in there with them, then quickly leaned forward and pressed the briefest, softest of kisses to Will’s lips.

The fluorescent lights flickered, but just for a moment.

‘See you out there, Byers!’ said Mark, grabbing his bag and heading outside.

Will stood rooted to the spot for a moment, still processing what had just happened, before following his friend (boyfriend?) out to the track.

Despite his mom’s promises to be quiet and unobtrusive, he heard her cheering the second he stepped outside. She was dressed in the school colours, waving a banner and jumping up and down excitedly.

‘Will! Will! Over here!’ she yelled. Beside her, Jonathan and Nancy sat with their arms around each other, looking up at Mrs Byers with affectionate embarrassment.

His friends sat a few rows back, having what looked like a pretty heated discussion (probably about their latest D&D campaign, which kept getting postponed due to homework and track training and movie prep). Will grinned. He was grateful they were all there, especially since he knew most of them couldn’t care less about athletics.

Mark was at the team bench, doing calf stretches, and they exchanged shy smiles as Will put his gear down. Will started doing his own stretches, and trying to focus his mind for his first event, the 200 metres.

His mind was still buzzing with thoughts as he walked to the starting line. He could still feel Mark’s lips on his, and he felt like the evidence of it must have been obvious to everyone in the stands, especially his mom and his friends. _So what?_ he thought. _Why shouldn’t they know? I’m gonna tell them this week. Maybe not all about Mark, exactly …_ For some reason he wanted to keep that just between them for a little longer. It felt too personal and private to share with the whole world – instead he wanted to keep the thought of them deep inside, nestled just next to his heart. _But I’m definitely going to tell them that I’m gay. They love me, and this’ll just mean that they know a new thing about the me that they already love. It shouldn’t change anything._

Should he tell them all about his powers at the same time? He thought that would probably be too much for his mom to handle – supernatural stuff had brought her nothing but grief over the last few years, and he knew this new ability he had would only make her anxious. He should tell his friends though, right? Dustin, Lucas and Max would all think it was awesome, and would probably come up with a million ideas for how he could use it. Hey, maybe he could reveal it by manipulating one of the games in the arcade – adding an extra 0 to the end of all their high scores or something. They’d love that.

 _What about Mark? Would he still like you if he knew?_ Will frowned. That wasn’t a question he was ready to face yet. There was so much about him that Mark didn’t know yet, and there’s no way he could start with something this weird. He’d tell him eventually – he wanted them to know everything about each other – but he’d have to work his way up to it. There was no rush. They had plenty of time.

As he got into position, sizing up the Woodrow Wilson guys on either side of him, Will tried to clear his head of all these questions. _Just breathe_ , he told himself. _Breathe, and focus on the track ahead._

The starter’s gun sounded.

Will ran.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it! I'm not a huge fan of Original Character stories, but for some reason I just felt compelled to create a boyfriend for Will that would give him minimal angst. That boy deserves nothing but happiness.  
> BTW, I highly recommend all the songs on that mixtape.


End file.
